How do you like it? It's been a while since I read it, but I still have quite good memories of it. Might be my favourite Rushdie novel (for some reason I can't finish Midnight's Children, I still liked Shalimar the Clown a lot, though.

I'm enjoying it immensely. Rushdie's writing is beautiful, and there's a fantastic magic realist element to the plot. I can see why it would offend certain Muslims, though...

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Quote from: New York Times, September 15, 1960

Rep. Wharton says being a Congressman is a full-time job these days; there would be no time for doing television comedies.

Mr. Vidal shrugs and lets his cocker spaniel lick the Chateau Yquem off his fingers.

recently read 'The Inspector General' by Gogol and 'A Very Brief Intoduction to Socialism' by Michael Newman. currently working on 'From Ritual to Record' by Allen Guttman and Susan Brownell's 'Beijing's Games: What the Olympics Mean to China'.

significantly cutting back on / ceasing alcohol use has made reading much more enjoyable/possible

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I wanna contribute to the chaosI don't wanna watch and then complain,'cause I am through finding blamethat is the decision that I have made

Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. Fascinating insight story of a seemingly fairly typical catholic German upper middle class family that produced one of the worlds worst mass murderers (who couldn't stand the sight of blood). She is married to an Israeli by the way! Divine irony.

I finished The Brothers Karamazov earlier this week, in terms of pleasure reading.

In terms of not-so-pleasure reading, I'm working my way through Dagmar Herzog's Sex After Fascism, which examines the myths and perceptions arising re: sexuality in the Nazi era and how they affected the development of sexuality in both West and East Germany postwar.

I am nearing the end of The Just War Myth by Andrew Fiala. He is an engaging writer but I do not recommend the book for anyone who has a lot of interest in war theory. It is pretty much another book attacking the Bush Administration and the War on Terror (a good thing in my opinion) but at times it strays from critiquing the Christian theories of a just war.

I am also reading a bunch of special education books as I labor towards my doctorate in education and you would have no interest in those (unless you love IDEA 2004 and the Larry P decision!).

I finished The Brothers Karamazov earlier this week, in terms of pleasure reading.

thoughts?

Short version is that it's one of the most powerful books I've ever read and that Dostoyevsky's insight into the human mind is really only matched by Shakespeare and Goethe among authors I've read. Long version would be full of spoilers.

A History of Saudi Arabia, because I got bored of Niall Ferguson's Colossus.

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The Prime Minister of New Zealand:17:40 oakvale the people are bad and shouldn't be allowed vote whenever possible17:40 oakvale The average voter wants to end austerity, bring back hanging and put all immigrants in death

Just finished "To kill a mockingbird." We have a bunch a books coming due on Sunday (borrowing is for three weeks at the local public library), so I'll pick something else up. I read a nice review of Leon Uris' "Armageddon" and I see that it's in stock, so maybe I'll get that one.

Does anyone have any good suggestions that I could bring up for the next meeting of my international book club? The last book we read was a looping polemic that turned out to have been chosen solely so that the libertarians in the club could use it as a jumping off point to spread their gospel. The next book is Niall Ferguson's "The West and the Rest", and I can already tell that I won't like it. I desperately need to be equipped with a good suggestion the next time around. We want some more women to attend the book club so ideally it would be a book that would attract some more women. I am thinking of Nicholas Kristoff's 'Half the Sky' but I wonder if that is too explicitly feminist. Another book that I like is Mara Hvistendahl's 'Unnatural Selection'.

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A New Chapter"I feel like Paulette Revere — the recession is coming, the recession is coming!” - Hillary Clinton, April 3, 2008

Does anyone have any good suggestions that I could bring up for the next meeting of my international book club? The last book we read was a looping polemic that turned out to have been chosen solely so that the libertarians in the club could use it as a jumping off point to spread their gospel. The next book is Niall Ferguson's "The West and the Rest", and I can already tell that I won't like it. I desperately need to be equipped with a good suggestion the next time around. We want some more women to attend the book club so ideally it would be a book that would attract some more women. I am thinking of Nicholas Kristoff's 'Half the Sky' but I wonder if that is too explicitly feminist. Another book that I like is Mara Hvistendahl's 'Unnatural Selection'.

8 women on a train was in our book club once. Horrible book, yes, but international and feminist.